Sixteen University of Pennsylvania law professors have written a
letter blasting the school's sexual misconduct policy, arguing
recent rule changes have made the process unfair to students
accused of sexual assault.

In the letter,
posted online by the Wall Street Journal's Law Blog, the
UPenn professors criticize policy guidelines from the Department
of Education's Office of Civil Rights for stripping away
protections for accused students, as well as sidestepping the
typical lawmaking process. One of the most controversial changes
mandated by OCR is a lower burden of proof to find students
"responsible" for sexual assault.

"As law teachers who instruct students on the basic principles of
due process of law, proper administrative procedures, and rules
of evidence designed to ensure reliable judgments, we are deeply
concerned by these developments," the Ivy League professors
write.

The UPenn letter also critiques the university's new procedures
for sexual assault hearings, which no longer allow accused
students to have a lawyer cross-examine witnesses. The professors
write that these changes infringe on the "fundamental fairness"
of the hearings:

We recognize that student disciplinary hearings are not criminal
trials and therefore do not require all constitutional
guarantees. What is required is fundamental fairness, including
(1) the right to the assistance of counsel in preparation for and
conduct of the hearing, (2) the right to cross-examine witnesses
against the accused student and to present defense witnesses and
evidence, and (3) the right to a fair and unbiased hearing panel.

In a statement to The Philadelphia Inquirer,
which first reported on the letter, a UPenn spokesperson
defended the university's sexual misconduct policy. "Penn
developed the new process as a fair and balanced process to
address the serious issue of sexual assault on campus and we
believe the process responds appropriately to the federal
government's regulations and guidance," the statement said.

UPenn is not the first Ivy League law school to have a group of
professors publically attack the university's sexual misconduct
policies.